You know, we use ad-blockers as well. We gotta keep those servers running though.
Did you know that we publish useful books and run
friendly conferences — crafted for pros like
yourself? E.g. our upcoming SmashingConf Barcelona,
dedicated to smart front-end techniques and design patterns.

WordPress is a wonderfully powerful CMS that ships with many versatile features giving it the flexibility to work out of the box for a wide range of users. However, if you are a professional building custom themes and plugins, sometimes these features can be problematic.

The same features and options that allow off-the-shelf themes to adapt to many different use cases can sometimes also be used to undermine a carefully designed custom theme built for a specific use case.

If you have an e-commerce website, then SSL is mandatory for safely processing credit cards. But even if you aren’t processing payments, you should still seriously consider secure HTTP (or HTTPS), especially now that I’m going to show you how to set it up quickly, for free. Let’s get started.

In short, SSL is the "S" in HTTPS. It adds a layer of encryption to HTTP that ensures that the recipient is actually who they claim to be and that only authorized recipients can decrypt the message to see its contents.

An increasingly large number of publicly available APIs provide powerful services to expand the functionality of our applications. WordPress is an incredibly dynamic and flexible CMS that powers everything from small personal blogs to major e-commerce websites and everything in between. Part of what makes WordPress so versatile is its powerful plugin system, which makes it incredibly easy to add functionality.

We will walk through how I made GitHub Pipeline, a plugin that allows you to display data from the GitHub API on WordPress pages using shortcodes. I’ll give specific examples and code snippets, but consider the technique described here a blueprint for how to consume any service API with a plugin. We’ll start from the beginning, but a degree of familiarity with WordPress and plugin development is assumed, and we won’t spend time on beginner topics, like installing WordPress or Composer.

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As designing static pages has become untenable, many have started to approach design in a modular way.
In this book, we’ll identify what makes an effective design system that empowers teams to
create great digital products.
Pre-order the book now →

Today, too many websites are still inaccessible. In our new book
Inclusive Design Patterns, we explore how to craft
flexible front-end design patterns and make future-proof and accessible interfaces without extra effort. Hardcover, 312 pages.
Get the book →

Meet the new Sketch Handbook, our brand
new Smashing book that will help you master all the tricky, advanced facets of Sketch. Filled with
practical examples and tutorials in 12 chapters, the book will help you become more proficient in your work.
Get the book.

Trends don’t matter, but techniques do.
With SmashingConf Barcelona, we’ll explore problems,
smart solutions and lessons learned from actual projects.
Taking place on October 17–18 at the Palau de la Música Catalana.
To the tickets →

Home sweet home! On September 11–12th, we're gathering for our 6thSmashingConf Freiburg right next to the legendary Black Forest.
With Umar Hansa, Rachel Andrew, Alla Kholmatova, Chris Wright, and others.
To the tickets →